When our oldest son Randy was about six months old, my dad, Porky Sr., came by our home one morning and told Bess, my wife, to pack his lunch and thermos - he was going to work. Bess told him no way, not until Randy turned three years old. Until that day, Randy was hers and would stay home. Randy (a third-generation well driller) really was given the opportunity to know and enjoy his grandfather before he passed away. The day Randy turned three years old, my dad told Bess to pack his lunch and thermos, and he went back with us to the drill site.
When Randy went along to the site, my dad wasn't much help on the drill. He and Randy were always catching drill cuttings, fishing, driving the jeep or working on something together. I guess that's the reason Randy can fix about anything today.
On one occasion, my dad took an old disassembled lawn mower engine (parts in a box) to the drill site. Dad and Randy worked in the doghouse late into the night putting the engine together. Dad told Randy that once they had the engine together, they would start it. Then the drill bit wore out, and we had to come out of the hole to replace it. Dad told Randy to stay in the doghouse until we tripped the bit. Dad always ran the rig while I worked in the derrick. Once we got on bottom with the new bit, Dad told me to start drilling while he helped Randy start their engine they had previously assembled.
Dad stepped in the doghouse and I heard him say, "@#$%&*! Randy, you've taken it apart again!" During the time it took us to trip the bit, Randy had taken out the spark plug and removed both the head and pan from the engine. Needless to say, Dad and Randy spent the rest of the night putting the engine back together again, mounting it on a board, putting oil and gas in it, and starting it.
Randy seldom slept when he went to the drill site. Sometimes he would stay with us on the drill site for 48 hours and take naps in the doghouse and the pickup. Mom was always calling on the radio to see when he was coming home.
From that day on, that engine stayed in the doghouse for many years for Randy to start, take apart, fix and stay busy with when he went to the drill site. Many times, Dad would do something to the engine so it wouldn't start and then help Randy figure out what was wrong.
When Randy was seven years old, he could tell the drill crew just how the drill was to be set up from the placement of the floor sills, where to dig the mud pits and where to place the doghouse.
Our third-and forth-generation children today don't have the opportunity to mold relationships with their parents and grandparents due to today's government laws and regulations designed to protect our children. Much of the time, our children don't have the opportunity to go with their fathers and grandfathers and be a part of their lives, learning from them about what's fun, what's safe and what's dangerous.
Therefore, our young children must stay home by themselves, watch filthy and crime TV shows, become bored from nothing to do, and many times, get into trouble. Most parents today are forced to work away from the home and their children just to make ends meat.
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